Carleton College classics professor Clara Shaw Hardy tells the Star Tribune that the college’s Pathways website, which helps students figure out how to turn a liberal-arts degree into a career, reflects a relatively recent parental desire to make such education relevant:

“When I got here 20 years ago, I know I would have found it almost offensive. But there’s been a culture shift.”

Associate Dean Louis Newman says the site won’t create a careerist mentality at the college:

“We had to make very clear from the get-go [that] this is all about exploring. It’s about branching out. The last thing in the world we want to do is start narrowing their interests too soon into some career path. That’s not the point of this kind of education.”

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.